I remember a laundromat that replaced all of it's older Maytag washers with these Blackstone commercial machines back in the early 70's. As I recall, they didn't hold up well and that place closed a couple of years later. Probably not due to the durability of the machines, but that times were changing and big laundromats just weren't needed as much. I think these machines were sort of Blackstone's last hurrah before they went out of existence. I know they used to make commercial washers back in the 50's and 60's with the solid tubs because I saw a laundromat that had them once. So they much have been decent machines back then. I know there used to be a lot more coin laundries back then. Seems to me that Blackstone made some of these same machines badged as Hoover washers and dryers.

I do like that ad, and surely see similarities in these machines that would make Hoover a sort of tie-in, manufacturing wise, though the brand was a regional-thing (East Coast of the United States) that not being thoroughly promoted was a failure, sales-wise, and a stuck-in-the-'70's sort of thing, if it did not survive long enough to make it to an '80's (and later decades) design...

The Hoover full-size machines were indeed Blackstones and seemed to appear just before the company finally gave up on the laundry-appliance business. Curiously, there was a line of washers here in Canada made by the Beatty Company in the early to mid-60s that were Blackstone designs also. Further aside, the first Viking washers sold by Eaton's here in Canada were also Blackstones (mid to late 50s models like the BA250 - not in Charcoal Grey, however.... LOL). I guess they really did focus on the Eastern part of the continent.

I have no regrets about saving the '66 BA600 but when I was restoring it, I could see where the weak point of these machines was - the outer tub. Otherwise, the machine I have is a solid performer - I use it regularly and it washes pretty well. It's also incredibly quiet and the spin really is smooth.

I've often thought, if Sears had contracted with Blackstone to make its washers instead of Whirlpool, Blackstone might be a force in the appliance industry to this day. My impression is that Whirlpool was not that big a company in the 1940s, but grew with Sears.

Blackstone just didn't have the merchandising budget to compete with the big battalions. Even so they lasted as long or longer as Philco-Ford, Easy, and the "real" Kelvinator.